Currently, as shown in FIG. 1, service providers 105 transmit programs over a distribution plant 110 to a plurality of subscribers 115, where the subscribers may receive the programming by set-top boxes (STTs) 120, normal, or full size, televisions 125, and/or widescreen televisions 130, and the programming may be provided in either high-definition or standard definition. The high-definition television (HDTV) revolution has led to service providers 105 frequently converting program content between 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios. It will be appreciated that the 4:3 aspect ratio is common for standard-definition television (SDTV) programming and the 16:9 is common for HDTV programming and movies. In order to display 16:9 content on a 4:3 screen, letterboxing is used in which horizontal bars are inserted at the top and bottom of a display screen. This is done with many presentations recorded onto digital video discs (DVDs) now, for example. Similarly, in order to display 4:3 content on a 16:9 screen, vertical bars are added to the sides of the screen. Additionally, STTs perform this conversion as well if standard definition content is tuned and a high definition output on the STT was selected and if high definition content is tuned and a standard definition output was selected.
When the STTs perform the aspect ratio conversion, a featureless medium-grey background to minimize burn-in on the screen is typically displayed in the horizontal or vertical bars. It may be advantageous to the system provider, content providers, and television manufacturers to be able to present data, such as advertising, program information, or other data, that is inserted into the horizontal or vertical bars. On the other hand, it may be advantageous to some to prevent information or data from being inserted into these bars. There is a need, therefore, for systems and methods that allow a service provider or a television manufacturer to insert data in specific areas of a display screen or alternatively to block any data insertions.